Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 1989
Publisher
Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne
Abstract
Kant combined two traditional approaches in his political theory, reference to a utopian and ideal universal moral order in common with Plato, Thomas More, and Jean Jacques Rousseau and an analysis of the pursuit of individual self-interest leading to the establishment of laws that enable citizens to satisfy their interests, like Thomas Hobbes, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Adam Smith. Kant focused on the international level, arguing that following the categorical imperative would arrange a society equitably while national commercial self-interest would lead to a league of nations to adjudicate international disputes. Kant was unique in providing both a theory of an ideal society and a method to achieve it.
Recommended Citation
Kain, P. J. "Kant's Political Theory and Philosophy of History," Clio, 18 (1989): 325-45.
